What is a content website & what is a social networking site?

According to this article on Boston.com, “Consumers under 35 devote much of their online time at entertainment news and gaming websites while middle-age folks are more interested in using the Internet to read about news or to go shopping, but whether young or old, most people are logging only a fraction of their Internet time on social networking sites.”

Look at the screen shot below and you’ll see a feature called “Globe Biz on Twitter.” It takes up about one-quarter of the screen. Notice too that you can log into Boston.com and set up an identity and follow others and recommend stories to your friends. (I’ve also highlighted some other “social networking-ish things but I’ll skip the debate points. And I’ll also skip the obvious fact that “gaming websites” are some of the most socially networked sites online or that “going shopping” online is powered by user reviews and recommendations.)

So is Boston.com a “content website” or a “social networking” site? Would people being surveyed understand the difference?

Bottomline: When all media is social, the term social media is redundant.

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Launched in August, 2000, RexBlog.com is the personal blog of Rex Hammock, founder/ceo of Hammock Inc., a customer media and marketing services company founded in 1991 in Nashville. Rex is also founder/helper-in-chief of SmallBusiness.com.(...)